Dandana LLC, which set out to offer Arab-Americans an MTV-like mix of music videos, gossip, entertainment, talk shows and recorded music concerts on the Dish Network under the name Dandana TV, filed for Chapter 7 liquidation in U.S. District Bankruptcy Court in Newark.

The bankruptcy followed a $425,000 judgment against Dandana awarded by a federal court in Massachusetts in June 2012.

The judgment accounts for about 85 percent of the $499,000 in liabilities reported by the Dandana TV, which said it had no assets and no longer produced television programs. The bankruptcy filing said the company had no revenue in 2013, and lost $211,000 in 2012 and 91,000 in 2011.

It was unclear Tuesday whether Dandana TV continues to provide television programming of any sort. Company CEO and founder, Amro "Andy" Altahwi, an Egyptian immigrant who formerly lived in Saddle River until moving to New York, did not respond to a request for comment.

Emails sent to the company through its website bounced back. Dish Network also did not respond to a request for comment.

Altahwi had been a commodities trader and founded Adamason Brothers, a Paramus-based securities brokerage, mortgage and investment banking services company, before he started Dandana.

Dandana TV began broadcasting music videos in July 2004, with 15 employees and a studio in Paramus. The company bought satellite time on Globecast World TV, where viewers could see the programs for free, Altahwi said at the time. A second channel, Dandana Reality, followed in August 2005.

Altahwi said in 2006 that although there was plenty of programming for Arabs in the U.S. at that time, it was mainly made in the Middle East and didn't "reflect us as Arab Americans."

He touted his channel as a way to "build a bridge between our community here and their family and friends back home."

Dandana LLC also purchased the rights to screen programming from the Middle East in the U.S., which sparked a lengthy court battle.

A suit filed in U.S. District Court in Massachusetts by Stars for Art Production FZ, LLC, a Dubai-based television company that owns two television channels in Egypt, said it struck an agreement with Altahwi in 2005. It gave Dandana the rights to screen one or other of Stars for Art's channels in the U.S., for $180,000 a month.

But Dandana paid only $295,000 of $720,000 owed, according to the suit, which sought to recover the rest.

"Basically, Dandana made to be what I believe to be many hundreds of thousands of dollars from the use of Stars television channel without paying Stars the money it is owed," Moustafa Gaber, Stars for Art's general manager, said in an affidavit filed with the court.

Stars for Art won a default judgment in June 2012, after Dandana failed to defend itself in court. Dandana later argued that it didn't know about the case because it was never served.

Dandana also faces a lawsuit filed by a former Dandana TV host and producer, Eliza Elturk of Little Falls, who worked at the station from 2007 until June 2011, when she says she was fired because she rebuffed Altahwi's "sexually harassing behavior." Elturk is listed in the bankruptcy papers as a creditor who is owed $15,000.

In a separate legal battle, a suit filed by Altahwi in 2008 in U.S. District Court in Newark accused another company, Middle East Broadcasting Services, of reneging on a deal to pay Altahwi 30 percent of its U.S. revenue in return for his help in getting the company get more exposure in the U.S.